


We Could Never Leave Your Side

by LibraryMage



Category: Leverage
Genre: Archie Leach is a Bad Father, Autistic Character, Found Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Episode: s03e03 The Inside Job, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 11:03:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12209964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Parker is used to being left behind, cast aside, or forgotten (well..."forgotten"), so she's not quite sure what to do when someone finally comes back for her.





	We Could Never Leave Your Side

**Author's Note:**

> warning for references to past child abandonment and abuse; reference to past child death
> 
> (title comes from "Second Family" by Patent Pending, which I definitely wasn't listening to while I wrote this (/blatant lies))

Looking back, Parker could say that the time her mom dumped her at a truck stop and drove away set the tone for the rest of her life.  From then on, it was foster homes that would get rid of her after a month or two at most (her record shortest stay in a supposedly “permanent” placement was three days).  There was a good foster home once, but even they got rid of her after their _real_ son died.  There were kids at school who would act nice to her for a few days until they realized she was weird and dumped her.  There was Kelly, who had said they were friends, and then had ditched her the second they heard sirens.  By then, at least, she’d learned to expect it.  That didn’t make it hurt any less.

She’d always known that when things went wrong and the plan failed, she’d be on her own.  That’s how it had been with Archie -- you get caught, you get yourself out -- and she knew that’s how it would be with the team.

At least, she knew it right up until she’d picked up the phone on the stranger’s desk and heard Hardison’s voice.

They hadn’t _saved_ her.  Parker didn’t need _saving_.  But they’d helped.  They’d come in after her, they’d helped her finish the job even after she’d screwed it up, and they’d escaped together, as a team.

And that just didn’t make any sense.

Now, the team had scattered for the night, Sophie having just left the bar a moment ago, leaving Parker and Nate as the only ones in the room.  Parker was looking down at the top of the bar, trying not to stare at Nate, as she attempted to puzzle out the day’s events.  In spite of how hard she was trying not to, she looked up and found herself staring at Nate.  His back was turned at that moment, but he looked back over his shoulder, like he’d felt her eyes on him.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing.”  Parker looked back down at her hands, fiddling with the fraying edges of her sleeves.  She looked back up at Nate, trying to be subtle about it.  He was pouring whiskey into a glass.  Of course he was.  He saw her looking and gestured to her with another empty glass, silently offering her a drink.  She shook her head and looked away.  Whiskey made her head feel swimmy.

Not seconds later, she caught herself looking at Nate again.  She looked away yet again, hoping he hadn’t noticed.  But it was Nate, so of course he did.

“What?” he asked again.

“It’s nothing,” she insisted.

“Parker --”

“Why did you come after me?”  She blurted out the question almost before he’d finished saying her name.

Nate blinked, his face switching from his normal, neutral expression to one Sophie had explained usually meant someone was caught off guard.  Nate hadn’t been expecting the question, and that confused Parker.  Wasn’t it a perfectly reasonable thing to ask?

“Why wouldn’t we?” he asked.

Parker just stared, not understating the question.  Was he drunk already?  Or was he playing some weird mind game?

“Why would you?” Parker asked again, her voice slowing down as she tried to figure out what he was up to.

She didn’t know what the word was for the way Nate was looking at her, but she knew she didn’t like it.

“Because you’re part of this crew,” he said.

“Oh.”  _That_ made sense.  She was a part of the crew.  She was useful to them.  There were things they couldn’t do without her around, at least not without going to the trouble of finding someone capable of replacing her.  Why bother finding that person when they could just stick with what they had?

Nate grimaced.  Parker’s hands tensed up as she tried to figure out what she’d done wrong.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Nate said.  “We didn’t just come after you because you’re useful to have around.”

Parker glared at him.

“Stop reading my mind,” she said.

“Parker, I can't -- never mind.”  Parker knew Nate couldn’t _really_ read her mind (probably), and he knew she knew that.  Nate stifled a sigh and took a sip of his drink.

“I meant, we’re a team,” he said.  “And we, uh…” he looked down into the glass.  Parker just waited, wondering where he was going with this.  “We look out for each other.  And when you’re in trouble, we’ll do whatever we can to get you out of it.”

“People don’t do that,” Parker said with a small shake of her head.

“Friends do.”

Parker considered that for a few seconds, but it didn’t take long for her to see the gaping hole in Nate’s logic.

“My friends always left me behind,” she said.

“Then they weren’t your friends,” he told her.

“But you guys are.”  Parker was surprised to realize it wasn’t a question.

“Yeah,” Nate said.  “We are.  All of us.”

Parker looked down again, not sure what to do with that, but absolutely sure that she didn’t want to look at him right now.  Without even realizing she was doing it, her began tapping her index fingers against the bar, alternating between one and the other.

“Hey, Parker --”

She pulled her hands back closer to her chest.

“No, I wasn’t going to -- I just wanted to say, he…” Nate stopped talking again.  Parker couldn’t help but smile a little, knowing he was almost as bad at emotion words than she was.

“He should’ve treated you better,” Nate finally said.  “He should’ve gone in after you.  That’s what real families do.”


End file.
